Here’s a Timelapse of me picking one name out of the hat this morning for the winner of the Jamieson & Smith yarn to knit my Tree and Star hat pattern
Thank you to everyone who entered this giveaway. Happy New Year and happy knitting love Tracey.
The winner of this Giveaway, is Kerry Poulter.
Hi everyone. Happy New knitting year.
I put a pole out recently on Instagram stories to see if people would like me to knit another Kaleidoscope Jumper and over 100 people added yes.
When I first knitted the jumper pattern in August, I made the pattern one size only and some people were disappointed about that. I wrote a blog on why this was the case which is here, if you would like to read that.
Recently, I have knitted the Tree and Star sleeves and didn’t know whether or not to knit another Kaleidoscope jumper body or just add them to a striped vest. I have decided to knit a 2nd Kaleidoscope jumper in larger needle size than the first one so that I can show everyone what increasing needle size will do to the overall size of the jumper.
The orginal Jumper pattern uses 2:75mm UK needles for the rib and 3mm UK needles for the body.
The jumper I am now knitting will use 3:5mm UK needles for the body and I will let you know along the way, what difference the needle size increase makes to the overall finished jumper.
Here are the two sleeves that I have just finished – one in 2025 and the other yesterday, 2026. The Tree and Star sleeve pattern has a full alphabet sheet so that you can add your own initials and date your project
The Tree and Star sleeve pattern is an additional option instead of the Tree sleeves in the original jumper. I have really enjoyed knitting these sleeves using my stash of randome colours, though, each band is mostly colour blended.
I have decided to do a Kaleidoscope Jumper Knit along so that it might help people if they feel stuck with the pattern. I will not be teaching on the KAL but I will be adding photos and updates to ravelry.
Here is the announcement on Ravelry and here is the Knit along forum group discussion on my ravelry I’m not very good at the group discussions on Ravelry but I will be trying very hard 🙂
For the timeline, I am thinking along the following lines
January – Cast on
Feb / March – Knit the body of the jumper
April – Knit the front V and back to shoulders.
May / June – Knit the sleeves, graft the shoulders, knit the V neck and join the sleeves by grafting
This might not be possible for everyone so, start when you like and if you have already started, then please add to the group chat
I will be knitting my 2nd Kaleidoscope jumper in many colours – I hope that some of you will join me – this is my first every real KAL.
If you have started this jumper pattern and would like to join the knitalong, then please add your relpy to the Group KAL thread here.
I am looking forward to meeting some of you in the group. 🙂
lots of love. Tracey
Happy New Year to my long-standing followers on this blog and to my new subscribers.
To celebrate the New Year, I arrived home from Japan on New Year’s Day and the next morning, I promptly went to Stanage Edge in the Peak District, which is 6 miles from my home in Sheffield, to watch the sunrise.
I could not have imagined that I would witness the biggest Orange Wolf Super moon setting over the horizon before an equally orange sun rose opposite making a truly Golden hour.
The ground was covered in ice puddles and the first scattering of a salty snow. An Icy wind cut through my coat and knitted jumper to the skin on my arms and I felt alive. Glad to be home glad to be back to the place that enriches me, time after time.
Normally I’m the only person on the edge of Stanage rocks at 7:45 am but there were small groups and a couple with a child who could not moderate the level of his own voice which carried excitedly across the edge of the rocks
I go to this place to reconnect to the core of myself – no cars, no city, no internet. The landscape has not changed for thousands of years. Many people know of this place and it is big enough to share because you need to be bold and brave in minus temperatures and biting winds to witness a moonset and a sunrise within half an hour while people still sleep in their warm unknowing beds.
On the New Year, as a thank you to my followers I have posted on Instagram an opportunity to win enough yarn to knit my tree and Star beanie hat in its original coloured yarn, purchased from Jamieson & Smith in Shetland, but some of you do not follow me on Instagram so I’m posting on here the same opportunity
I am offering one person, who will be picked out of a draw next week, the opportunity to win the original Shetland coloured yarns to knit this gorgeous Tree and Star beanie.
To enter the drawer you have to buy the pattern for the hat.
The link to the Tree and Star hat pattern is here
If the winner of the draw is in the UK, I will post the Shetland yarn to them free, but if you live in another country other than England, then I will ask for a contribution to the postage for the winner
This hat pattern is a perfect easy starter project if you would like to knit the kaleidoscope jumper project because they both have the same easy Shetland Tree and Star Motif
I hope you’ll be following me for another year because I will be changing a few things in 2026. If you already don’t do so there are lots more images on Instagram.
Kaleidoscope Jumper Pattern is here
Here is the post on instagram – where you will find lots more photos and offers.
Happy New Year – good luck with this opportunity to win enough wonderful Shetland Yarn to knit the Tree and Star Beanie –
Happy knitting. Love Tracey
Tell me …. What is it that puts you off using or experimenting with new colours in your stranded colour work project?
I’m currently in Fujiyoshida – a town at the base of Mount Fuji, for 28 days. I’ve been knitting my Tree and Star sleeves with an idea to add them to a fabric body. I bought a couple of Kimono from the flea market at Hanazono Shrine in Tokyo but the fabric doesn’t work for a body with these sleeves. So, I may knit another Kaleidoscope jumper body using 3mm needles so that all the people who wanted a larger size can see how a needle increase from 2:75mm to 3mm will make to the overall size. Would that be of interest to anyone who was hoping for the next size up?
I am using my stash yarn as evidence of a journey in colour. A journey that anyone could do with their own stash. I kept knitting this motif in different colours because I couldn’t settle on just one. Each version felt like a different mood—quiet, bold, playful, grounded. The first colours of brightest pinks with my initials and the year 2026, when the project will be finished, felt like really owning the sleeve as – not just knitting but creative freedom.
That’s when I realized the pattern isn’t about my colour choices at all. It’s about giving you a place to try yours. I would like to invite you to have a look at these sleeves and think of the colours and if you were going to knit the same jumper – which ones might you give a try.
When I lived in Shetland, my knitting patterns and their colour choices were devised around the wild Shetland landscape, the croft house that I lived in and the woman who had lived in the house for 83 years until 1960. But now, the Kaleidoscope jumper has been more playful, named after my own kaleidoscope at home, which has a great big blue marble at the end.
Would you like to try this jumper pattern for your everyday self—or your future self? I am wearing this jumper daily in Japan – it matches the sky and I am having a lot of fun wearing it with the matching hat and a tweed jacket. On Sunday, we all (from the residency) did a drop-in session for anyone who would like to knit or weave or trying punch needling. So many people came to see us including some Tokyo Fashion guys who wore all black, all brown or all Navy and I suggested that they needed a little colour – like a Fair Isle vest just showing through their dark colours -for every day. They were very interested in the colour idea.
The motif repeats consistently and the colours can be swapped without recalculating the whole pattern. I designed this so colour changes feel playful, not precious.
The pattern doesn’t ask you to commit to one look—it gives you a place to experiment. To trust your instincts. To surprise yourself.
If you want a project where colour gets to be personal, this one might be for you.
Swatch your colour ideas first – always swatch for colour to see what works and what doesn’t – for you. Keep the motif and the background colours with enough contrast so that the pattern is not muddied. And just experiment – this is the perfect motif.
Experimenting with colours that you love.
Here is the Kaleidoscope Jumper Let me know in the comments if you have bought the pattern and are still considering the colours you might choose.
Here are the Tree and Star sleeves which are alternative sleeves to the Tree only sleeves in the original pattern.
Let me know what you think about your colour choices.
I’m sitting on the roof of our residency, watching sunrise over Fuji, and I finally figured out that it’s Saturday. Being on an artist residency for a month, in another place, city, country, is kind of not knowing what day it is. To be fully immersed in place and a practice of making whatever comes to mind, and experiencing and finding new things in a new city that you never knew existed removes dates on a calendar and even day names.
I think it’s day 12. I finally settled into this place with new people and new building. On a practical level I’m still knitting. I’ve been knitting my second sleeve using the colours that I brought with me and really enjoying how they both sleeves sit alongside each other.
We’ve all had an artist interview with the people who manage the residency here. The questions were quite interesting – Tell us about you, what can you bring to Fujiyoshida, what does the residency space mean for you and a couple more questions that I’ve forgotten. I think what I bring here is an enduring curiosity for a place and culture (not everyone sees that in me) and an ability to share my findings with many people on my website blog and on Instagram. Of course I share just my perspective but I have a pretty keen eye.
Yesterday I was picked up by a complete stranger that contacted me through Instagram. She is called Shannon. She and her sister Pat were visiting their brother Mike who lives quite close to Fujiyoshida. We went to the Itchiku Kubota Art Museum, which is a museum built in 1994 by Itchiku Kubota to house his permanent exhibition of his work. It was quite remarkable to see the Kimono in all of their glory showing his techniques. If you ever go, my favourites were numbers 19 and 20. The gardens and buildings also represent the world of Itchiku
Then we went to the very beautiful chair museum to the foot of Mt. Fuji, in the forest of Oishi in Fujikawaguchiko. My favourite thing was the initial scent of wood on entering the building and the glorious, viewing Veranda where from many strategically placed small glass Windows in the traditional paper Shoji sliding doors you could view Mount Fuji whilst sitting on extremely exquisite low wooden sofas and chairs.
The view is exquisite. The scent was heavenly and then I found out that the building had been completely dismantled from the Saitama Prefecture in Tokyo, piece by piece and brought her to the mountain side.
If you don’t take chances with new people you never encounter these new things, so thank you Shannon for getting in touch and thank you Mike for driving us everywhere yesterday.
On a basic level, I’m knitting and my knitting is always portable so I sit on the roof at sunrise and watch the sun drench Fuji with colours of red or white light. I take my knitting to cafés and down to the Onsen, Which I visit every day except Wednesdays when it’s closed.
Knitting brought me here. Knitting has taken me to Shetland and other far off places and enabled me to continue to learn and express my creative practice through storytelling.
Here are my sleeves.
I am still not sure whether I will add them to a fabric body or a knitted body but if you want to practice your own colour work and experimentation through pattern and colour – then have to go with these sleeves or the hat pattern because this easy to knit motif lends itself to real experimentation and colour work.
Oh yes, I remember that one of the questions in the artist interview was, ‘what does art mean to you?’ and I think it is entirely about creative expression and freed of thought and when they both come together – you get alchemy
If you’d like to try this motif in a hat or jumper or alternative sleeves, then the links are here.
And even buying a small pattern helps and independent disigner to keep creating – so thank you. https://www.ravelry.com/designers/tracey-doxey
Tonight the moon is blue. It is a full, Super cold moon. Now, it is only 8 pm but utterly freezing outside.
Today, after very little sleep, I decided to walk to the base of Mount Fuji. The morning was cold but bright. To get to Fuji, there is first about a 3 miles to walk from town to the Kitaguchi Hongu Fuji Sengen Shrine, which is a huge complex of buildings – the first small shrine is said to date back to 100AD. It is now a magnificent World Heritage Centre and I can completely understand why. I do not know its history but as I walked up the main road out of town, that leads directly to this place, I recognised that from the 16th century to the 19th century, the path was once lined with inns, temples and shrines and places managed my Oshi (priests) on both sides. Some of these places are still here and also recognised as historical buildings but some are also abandoned or derelict or turned into some other use but the gates at the front remain. Each one had information about its history and on each reading, it became more obvious how special this place has been to generations. The closer I got to Fuji, I began to sense how many people came to pilgrimage, rest and pray here before walking the mountain.
When you finally reach the gateway to Kitaguchi Shrine, it is in a forest of Japanese pine trees which all must be 100 feet tall. The path way is lined by majestic stone lanterns covered in moss. Immediately you are plunged into shadow and coldness under the trees where the pilgrims would’ve originally come to bathe and drink water before setting off to climb out Fuji.
The largest trees are respected with rope and paper ribbons. Even though I do not know or fully understand what is going on here, there is no denying that it is and has always been epic – as epic as when I walked the Great Wall of China and turned around to see the wall meander for miles into the distance, as epic as the day I spent in the Forbidden City and sat and the Pavilion of Crimson snow. These experiences are never forgotten and maybe hold some of the essence of the pilgrims within it. This is not just a complex of spiritual buildings they are stories of lives, beliefs, and gods.
Great stones made into water troughs were covered in ice with little tiny fearn forests growing around the edges. When I looked at the rock, I thought, if stones could talk what stories they would tell of all those who have passed here since Fuji settled from erupting.
I walked around towards the base of the walk up to Fuji. The forest made it very cold and I decided to start the walk to the base until the black bear signs became progressively increased and I thought better off it because I was on my own so I turned back.
Back home, when Takumi, came round to sort the smoke detector in the residency, he said that I could buy a tiny bell from the souvenir shop and hang it off the back of my bag to deter the black bear. I don’t think that I can trust that idea so much.
I have decided I might do a project – after Hokusai’s 100 views of Mount Fuji. I’ve shown quite a few of my Fuji, snaps on Instagram but now I’ve decided to work towards 100 modern views of Fuji. So now, hopefully, I will hopefully concentrate more on the idea but just to keep you going as Fuji shows up every day.
Here are a few views of Fuji in the last three days.
I have been knitting my second tree and star sleeve. I bought two antique kimono from a flea market at Hanazono shrine when I was in Tokyo because I was going to make a cloth body for my Tree and Star sleeves – you know, just make a little jacket body either padded or appliqued or something but I’m not so sure now
Here are the sleeves. I’m knitting them in lots of colours to give you ideas of alternative colour ways, if you’d like to knit the Kaleidoscope jumper or the sleeves yourself instead of in the blues and pinks that I chose.
It’s a very special place here in Fujiyoshida and I’m glad I made my own pilgrimage to get here.
Here is the sleeve pattern on Ravelry, if you would like to knit them for your own project or add them to the Kaleidoscope Jumper instead of the tree sleeves that are in the original pattern – see image on the right above.
So much more has happened, I met my lovely friend, Yuka, who I have know from Uni and we went around the Tokyo toilets (my request) after the Film – Perfect Days. I had such a perfect day.
All ravelry patterns are here and if you would like to join me in an online colour workshop, nip to the link for workshops to find out more 🙂
I cannot sleep in this city that never sleeps. I have tried. My body is in some other time clock and my mind is thinking, going over everything that I have seen. I went to bed at 10pm, woke at 11,12 then 1am and again – finally at 2am. even breathing exercises didn’t make me go back to sleep.
I wasn’t sure of the roof top Onsen closing times. I thought it was 3 am so, by the time I decided to go and check at 3:15, it was closed. I returned to my room and made tea – placing the Elegant claypot on the window sill beside its matching cup on a tiny tray and looked out at this magnificent unbelievable world that I can see from my long low Horizontal window the length of the bed.
I wonder at this world of so many people Living so close together in high rises, each with their own different lives. It is good to travel and travel alone so that each experience is fully taken in to the level of the knowledge with which you can try to understand it. Because I have never seen anything like the wondrous site that is in front of my eyes right now.
Shinjuku, Tokyo
This week, the weather has had a sharp turn from really quite warm to really quite cold, in fact bitterly cold.
On Monday I reached for my stash Buster neck warmer and here I am on my bike going to the gym at 6:30 in the morning for a 7 am Body Balance class. I love Body Balance class on a Monday morning – it starts the week in the right way but getting there on these days in the pitch dark and freezing cold with sleet or lashing rain, on a tiny wheeled bike is a bit tough.
I designed the Stash Buster neck warmer in September 2023. You can see a link here for a blog on the making and designing of it. At the beginning of the process, I decided to chart out lots of Fair Isle patterns in my design sketch book on graph paper using the OXO motifs in different colours which means that the neck warmer is constructed in an intarsia way where each block has its own set of colours.
I have had a lot of new followers on instagram, and since I have been wearing the neck warmer again, there has been a small revival and interest in this pattern. so I want to say thank you for supporting me.
This week, on Tuesday evening, it was our crafting night at a local café in Nether Edge which has a huge wood burner inside. The cafe is a small room full of wonky tables, lots of chairs, a large fish tank and lots of plants and friendly people. This cafe is very comfortable in more ways than one – it is open- hearted and totally inclusive.
It is the best café in Sheffield and maybe Yorkshire so if you’re in the area check it out it’s called Café9 and you will always receive a great welcome
Next Friday, I will be flying to Tokyo. This week I’ve been sorting the last small details and meeting people who are going to look after my cat and come and live in my flat over the time that I’m away.
This afternoon I showed a new friend, that I met through Instagram, all the things in the flat and how they work for when she comes to stay. I wrote a cat and flat manual. This evening, I pondered how Instagram is quite a marvellous platform for joining people up. I have met so many brilliant women through my Instagram feed – either they’ve got in touch with me or I’ve got in touch with them and over time, we have built up longstanding friendships.
I’ll be taking quite a few of my making ideas to Japan. I’ve decided to take my Tree and Star sleeves to Fuji, because I have an idea that I’d quite like to add them to a jacket that I’ll make using flea market kimonos. I’ll take the kimono to pieces and reuse and reshape the pieces in different ways to make a jacket body – this is one of my ideas – I have a lot of ideas and I don’t know if any of them will come to full fruition but I am so looking forward to having one month in Fujiyoshida to just be – think, write, observe, sit quietly and notice the details.
I am excited to be taking the sleeves, because I know that they can be knitted into to any number of things such as on to a previously knitted vest or as I hope to do, added to a fabric body or as add-ons to the kaleidoscope jumper.
When I begin to be free with my creativity, more and more ideas come. Ideas to create things that I had not thought of before.
I was asked on Instagram today, if I could post works in progress so, above is an image of both of my Tree and Star sleeves using colours from my stash.
If you would like to knit the sleeves yourself, to add to other projects, or to add to your Kaliedoscop jumper the pattern is here
https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/tree-and-star-sleeve
I post work in progress on Instagram here – I love instagram for images.
I try to design beautiful knitted articles but they may not be considered interesting. All of my designs are meaningful to me but of course they will not be meaningful for others. All of my patterns also have a story embedded within them often from inspiration of place, people or colour But my stories are also not that meaningful to other others.
And big yarn companies that make patterns like Rowan or Sirdar, don’t genuinely take inspiration from real places or people that they’ve met. They often start with a mood board which has no integrity within the finished article so how do independent designers like me make a living from our creative practice?
Well, the answer is we don’t. I work at the university 2 1/2 days a week to pay my bills then I do my house jobs, care for the cat and manage the car and daily tasks and try to fit my creative practice into the time left for me, which can be hard when so many other other things take up my time
Independent designers do their own marketing, promotion and social media – responding to comments on Instagram and writing for the website to promote my creative practice. But then if I do sell a pattern for say, £4 Ravelry take 10% and then so do Paypal so I get about £3.20 for probably three months work to design Knit, test knit it, write the pattern – And that’s if I sell any at all.
I don’t have funding like a lot of creative practitioners, nor financial support so I want this post to say a big thank to you if you have ever bought a pattern or been on one of my workshops with me which showsme that the hard work that I’ve put in over the years has not been wasted and now, when I do finally get time to sit down and knit – my cat sits on top of me.
Here is a spotlight on my favourite pattern that I have ever designed at the moment and it’s the kaleidoscope jumper with add-on sleeve pattern and matching hat. I love wearing this jumper and always receive so many beautiful little comments about it so from one independent designer to whoever it is reading this Thank you for supporting us
Here is the Kaleidoscope Jumper pattern
And here is the link to that alternaitive Tree and Star sleeve, if you prefer to have the sam motif for the sleeve as used in the body.
Thank you
Finding Colour Confidence: Trusting Your Eye and Your Yarn
I often have comments on my posts about how people like the colours that I choose. They look at all those colours — beautiful, bright, blended or contrasting and say that they don’t know how to choose their own colour combinations successfully.
I used to feel the same way.
Choosing colour felt like a test I hadn’t studied for — as if there were secret rules I hadn’t learned.
My colour journey started after I went to Shetland to stay on Fair Isle with Mati, then at Brindister just before Christmas of 2019. At Brindister, I found Sea Urchin shells scattered on the hill beside the voe. I began to name the place Sea Urchin Hill and really took notice of the colours and form of the dried Sea Urchin Shells after the sea gulls had eaten the urchin.
In Jamieson’s of Shetland, in Lerwick, I bought colours that I felt worked for me for a new hat project. By then, I had started sampling colours but still didn’t know what I was doing. When I got home from Shetland, I started the Sea Urchin hat pattern with light background and a darker coloured Shetland Tree and Star Motif. And that is where the story of my colour blending started I laid two yarns together on a whim: a stormy and washy blue skies and a flash of dark reds and purples from one of the shells that I had seen.
.
It shouldn’t have worked — but it did. It looked alive.
And that was the start of learning to trust my inspiration and eye and I began to blend the colours.
What Changed
It wasn’t that I suddenly “understood” colour blending – my swatch book will show you that but it was that I stopped trying to get it right and started trying to get it interesting and understand the changes in tone and colour.
I began to notice colour in the world around me — the copper of old bricks, the green of moss after rain, the pink glow of dusk.
Nature never worries about matching. It just works.
That’s when I realised:
Colour confidence isn’t about knowing rules — it’s about paying attention, and being willing to play.
Small Steps to Build Colour Confidence
1. Start with Inspiration, Not Theory
Forget the colour wheel for a moment.
Go for a walk, look through a photo album, open your wardrobe.
What colours feel like you?
That’s where your palette begins.
2. Work With What You Have
Lay out your stash and make little “yarn bouquets.”
Mix fibres, tones, and textures — even scraps.
Sometimes the most magical combination comes from leftovers you’d never thought to pair.
A Palette from the Everyday
This week I took a walk through Sheffield woods — everything was damp and glowing.
There was soft lichen green, deep bark brown, a sudden flare of orange leaves against a grey sky.
When I came home, I pulled those colours from my stash and swatched a few rows.
Instant calm.
Sometimes, the best palette comes from the ground beneath your feet.
Confidence Comes with Play
Colour confidence isn’t something you’re born with.
It’s something you knit into being — loop by loop, swatch by swatch.
Every “wrong” colour combination teaches your eye what it loves.
And every small experiment builds courage for the next.
Ready to find your own colour confidence?
If you want to learn more now, and would like to join my exclusive small Colour classes of 6 people, then, I do teach colour blending workshops online and the information is here.
You’ll get the Sea Urchin Pattern free to work with after your workshop. Many people have joined me in the Colour Blending sessions from my first workshop in January 2021 – held in the window sill of my window in Shetland looking out to sea.
Now, I still teach but not often, so if you would like to grab a space, there is only one left for Friday 9th Jan and 4 left for Saturday 17th Jan. So please get in touch using the form on the workshops page.
If you have knitted the Sea Urchin hat pattern, please tag me on instagram because I do share other people’s knitting using my patterns.
Happy successful colour work knitting 🙂
Tracey
Tree and Star Hat pattern last week above the burning copper coloured fallen leaves
tracey doxey 